s home
to Aunt Elizabeth and making her pay up for it really has nothing to
do with Peggy's happiness. It is my child's happiness that I
want, Lorraine. There may be a misunderstanding of some
kind--misunderstandings are very cruel things sometimes, Lorraine. I
cannot believe that boy doesn't care for her--why, he loved her dearly!
It seems to me far the best and most dignified thing to just write to
Mr. Goward himself and find out the truth."

"I think so, too!" said I. "Oh, Madonna, you're a Jim Dandy!"

"And so," she went on, "I want you to ask Charles Edward to write
to-night. I'll leave the address with you. As Peggy's brother, it will
be more suitable for him to attend to the matter."

Charles Edward! I simply gasped. The idea of Peter's writing to Harry
Goward to ask him the state of his affections! If Peter's mother
couldn't realize how perfectly impossible it was for even ME to make
Peter do a thing that--Well--I was knocked silly.

Dear Madonna is the survival of a period when a woman always expected
some man to face any crisis for her. All I could do was to say,
resignedly:

"I'll give him the address." And when she got up I went to the gate
with her. She was as dear as she could be; I just loved her until she
happened to say:

"When I came in I thought you might be lying down, for I looked up and
saw the shades were pulled down in your room, as they are now."

"Oh," I said, "I don't suppose anybody has been back in the room since
we got up." And I was downright scared, she looked at me so strangely
and began to tremble all over. "What IS the matter?" I cried. "Do come
into the house again!" But she only grasped my arm and said, tragically:

"Lorraine, it isn't POSSIBLE that you haven't made your bed at four
o'clock in the afternoon!" And I answered:

"Oh, I always make it up before I sleep in it." And then I knew that I'd
said just the wrong thing. What difference it can make to ANYBODY what
time you make your OWN bed I can't see! She tried to make me promise
I'd always make it up before ten o'clock in the morning. Why, I wouldn't
even promise to always feel fond of Peter at ten o'clock in the morning!
I NEVER have anything to do with the family without always feeling on
edge afterward. Why, when she was so sweet and strong about Peggy and
Aunt Elizabeth and all the rest of it, WHY should she get upset about
such a trifle?

I stood there by the gate just glowering as she went off. I knew she
tho